'Goa Church Never Showed Preference To Any Political Party During LS Poll' By SAR NEWS
PANAJI, Goa (SAR NEWS) -- In the wake of media reports that the Catholic Church in Goa was open to the rightwing Bharatiya Janata Party Church in the recent parliametary elections, the Church authorities clarified that they did indicate preferences for any political party. The Diocesan Centre for Social Communications, Media, a wing of the Catholic Church, said that the Church had instead appealed to the citizens, particularly the Catholics, to vote according to their conscience and discretion. It referred to an official statement issued by the Church before the elections held in five phases between April and May, maintaining that all citizens, including Catholics, were expected to vote according to their conscience. “All that the Church does is to recommend that voters use their discretion with regard to parties whose policies are in conflict with the ideals of national unity and communal harmony,” the Centre said in a press release here, July 14. The clarification was necessitated by some reports and comments appearing in a section of the local media suggesting that the spokesperson to Goa archbishop, Father Francisco Caldeira, had made misleading statements on behalf of the Church leadership in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections. The press release said the alleged statement (by Caldeira) that the Catholics were open to the BJP was made in the course of an “unsolicited telephonic interview” which was given to a reporter of a national daily’s Goa edition. The statement also refuted charges that the Goa Church had not done enough to show its solidarity with the persecuted Christian tribals in Kandamahal, Orissa. It said the Goa Church had in fact topped the list of the Indian dioceses which sent monetary help to the victims of communal riots in Orissa last year and was the only one to collect more than 99,000 signatures, thus raising awareness among various entities, nationally and internationally, on the sufferings of the victims.
